There was a neat story today in Arnold’s newsletter that I want to riff about.
Before we get to that, do you know why there are no flying cars?
When I was growing up I thought it would be the coolest thing in the world if we had flying cars like in Blade Runner or Back to the Future part 2. That was before I spent time driving on the roads and realized that most of the population has no business piloting a 2-ton gas-powered death missile even while limited to two dimensions.
My correct opinion doesn’t mean much against the march of technology. The real reason we don’t have Delorean hover-cars is the same reason that 18-wheelers aren’t competing with V8 supercars over at the racetrack.
The makings of a great tow-truck make for real poor 0-60 acceleration.
So it is with a car-plane. What makes a great road-driving vehicle makes a terrible airplane, where a great airplane isn’t cut out for commuting on the interstate.
The design constraints involved mean that what’s real good for one job makes for terrible performance at the other.
Got it?
Hold that thought. Here’s what Arnold wrote about:
A weightlifter’s heart is like a compact, powerful engine, built for short, explosive bursts of force. An endurance athlete’s heart is like a high-displacement engine with a bigger fuel tank, optimized for sustained, efficient output over long distances.
Neither is better. They’re solving different problems.
And the research suggests the healthiest cardiovascular profile comes from training both. The thick, strong walls from lifting and the expanded, efficient chambers from aerobic work don’t cancel each other out. They compound.
I felt an urge to indulge in a “NO KIDDING!” but I stopped myself.
It’s easy for me to forget how much I’ve already forgotten about fitness, health, and biology. Even 20+ years ago this finding was not news to me.
Specificity of response to stimulus is a cornerstone principle of exercise, and it’s key to how I understand everything in the gym, the kitchen, and most everywhere else (any kind of skill learning works by the same rules).
Yet I find that most fitness and exercise people do not really understand what specificity means.
Your body adapts in ways that are very intelligent and yet, in some ways, “stupid” in terms of the extreme literal results that happen. The specific adaptations in weightlifters versus those in endurance athletes are not a surprise. I wrote about something similar in some articles back prior to 2009.
Anyway, back to the flying car and your takeaway from this strength-training vs. cardio story:
You aren’t going to train your way to good at everything.
You can’t optimize for strength, size, power, endurance, and horse-dance aerobics all at once.
Getting really good at one thing means letting go of everything else. The more good you want to get at it, the more you have to stop doing other things.
This drive to “optimize” everything leads to doing too much, scattering energy and attention across a bunch of junk that makes no difference, while avoiding the 2-3 things that DO matter.
People end up staying busy instead of getting after the outcome they want.
Optimizing leads to sub-optimal results.
What I suggest is that instead of blindly going for everything at the buffet, concentrate on the actual result you want.
Focus beats “optimization”.
Keep this in mind though:
Specificity doesn’t force you to that tired decision of training with weights OR doing cardio.
This common habit of thinking in either/or statements is one of my great White Whales as an educator and coach.
Both kinds of training can create results you want, assuming you want to be healthy, happy, and nice-looking. Do them right, and the benefits stack up. That lie that any cardio at all will “ruin your gains” has caused more damage than doing the cardio.
Your body responds to stimulus according to the dose you give it. Even a little taste of medicine creates growth in the right direction.
You don’t need a 5-day split routine from a pro bodybuilder to see gains in muscle and reduced fat, and you don’t need to hit the pavement 2+ hours a day to see cardio benefits.
My own training includes a lot more cardio than my fat-bulk days of years past (“any” would be a lot more…) and that is all for the better. I’m the only male in my family for at least three generations who doesn’t have high blood pressure after age 30.
You won’t build yourself into a sports car that can fly, so to speak, but you CAN nudge 2-3 factors along in a way that leads up to something halfway impressive.
Which all comes back to my ultimate principle of simple + effective:
Target the right levers, and let go of everything else.
It’s that simple.
If you aren’t finding it that simple… or you’ve found yourself stuck ’cause simple ain’t easy… send me a message and let’s see how I can help you.
Matt Perryman